Data for 1995

Participatory Democracy Index, 1995

Name: Participatory Democracy Index, 1995
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

1995, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem's Participatory Democracy Index asks how far citizens take part in politics beyond electing representatives — through civil society organisations, referendums and citizens' initiatives, and elected local and regional government — while also requiring genuine national elections. It runs from 0 to 1, and a higher figure is more democratic.

Participatory Democracy Index, 1995 covers 172 countries. Switzerland is highest, at 0.788; Bahrain is lowest, at 0.011. The middle country reads 0.241. Against 1994, 114 values changed (67 up, 47 down), the same countries are covered.

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Participatory Democracy Index · Data for 1995

HighestSwitzerland

0.788

LowestBahrain

0.011

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

172countries
1measure
1995the year it describes
153distinct values3 decimals, as published
Sep 26, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY-SA 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Participatory Democracy Index, 1995, as published. V-Dem Institute ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 172 countries · select a heading to sort

Participatory Democracy Index, 1995: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.788
2	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.740
3	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.734
4	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.703
5	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.689
6	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.661
7	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.655
8	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.649
9	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.647
10	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.646
11	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.642
12	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.639
13	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.637
14	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.633
15	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.631
16	United States`USA`Northern America	0.626
=17	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.622
=17	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.622
19	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.619
20	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.611
=21	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.610
=21	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.610
23	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.609
24	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.605
25	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.601
26	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.587
27	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.584
28	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.581
29	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.579
30	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.575
31	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.570
32	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.563
33	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.552
34	Chile`CHL`South America	0.539
35	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.518
36	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.515
37	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.508
38	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.501
39	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.500
40	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.492
41	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.484
=42	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.482
=42	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.482
44	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.477
45	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.466
46	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.461
47	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.457
48	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.450
49	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.439
50	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.436
51	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.434
52	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.428
53	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.427
54	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.414
55	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.413
56	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.412
57	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.404
58	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.391
59	Colombia`COL`South America	0.384
60	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.381
61	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.374
62	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.361
63	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.352
64	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.334
65	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.327
66	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.324
67	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.321
68	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.317
69	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.316
70	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.314
71	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.312
72	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.304
73	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.303
74	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.300
75	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.298
=76	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.297
=76	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.297
78	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.293
79	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.291
80	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.288
81	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.286
82	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.284
83	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.279
84	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.275
85	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.262
86	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.245
=87	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.236
=87	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.236
89	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.234
=90	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.230
=90	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.230
=90	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.230
93	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.229
94	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.227
95	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.223
96	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.222
97	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.221
98	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.217
99	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.213
100	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.211
101	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.202
102	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.199
103	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.193
104	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.189
105	Peru`PER`South America	0.184
106	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.181
107	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.174
108	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.171
109	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.167
110	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.166
111	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.161
112	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.157
113	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.154
114	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.152
115	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.146
116	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.145
117	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.142
118	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.139
119	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.135
120	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.130
121	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.129
122	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.126
123	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.125
=124	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.122
=124	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.122
126	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.120
=127	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.118
=127	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.118
=127	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.118
130	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.117
=131	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.115
=131	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.115
133	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.113
134	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.107
135	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.105
=136	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.102
=136	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.102
=138	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.094
=138	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.094
=140	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.091
=140	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.091
142	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.089
143	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.086
144	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.084
145	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.083
146	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.081
147	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.078
148	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.071
=149	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.069
=149	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.069
151	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.068
152	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.062
153	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.058
154	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.056
155	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.054
156	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.052
157	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.051
158	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.050
159	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.047
=160	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.046
=160	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.046
162	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.044
=163	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.043
=163	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.043
=163	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.043
166	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.037
167	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.024
168	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.019
169	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.016
=170	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.014
=170	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.014
172	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.011

02In 1995

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Switzerland0.788
2Uruguay0.740
3Denmark0.734
4New Zealand0.703
5Sweden0.689

Lowest

172Bahrain0.011
170Qatarshared0.014
170United Arab Emiratesshared0.014
169Eritrea0.016
168Saudi Arabia0.019

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.241. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031994 → 1995

Since 1994

What changed between 1994 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
114values changed, of 172 in both
67 · 47rose · fell
58unchanged

Rose most

South Africa0.294 → 0.457+0.163
Malawi0.181 → 0.275+0.094
Haiti0.102 → 0.174+0.072
Mozambique0.101 → 0.171+0.070
North Macedonia0.175 → 0.230+0.055

Fell most

Lesotho0.206 → 0.142−0.064
Côte d’Ivoire0.232 → 0.193−0.039
Armenia0.264 → 0.236−0.028
Gambia0.079 → 0.051−0.028
Belarus0.306 → 0.293−0.013

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

One year of the 2026 release
Every year in this series comes from V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 1995.
153 distinct values among 172
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.230. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
The position is ours
V-Dem Institute publishes values only; the order is this site’s.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 172 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
172 rows · 4.7 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download participatory-democracy-1995-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
V-Dem Institute’s own file, on its own site.
V-Dem-CY-Core-v16_csv.zip

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg (1995). Participatory Democracy Index, 1995 [data set], describing 1995. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/participatory-democracy/1995

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Participatory Democracy Index, 1994
172 countries
The year after ›
Participatory Democracy Index, 1996
172 countries
All of them
Participatory Democracy Index: every year
36 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
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